Not really a "concert" in the usual meaning of it, but yesterday I was at Loonyland in Cologne to see the one and only Felix Da Housecat! He as a real cool guy who loves his fans and is not afraid of shaking hands, giving high fives and share drinks with then and even made ME dance to exhaustion (and I'm known as Chief NeverdancesInPublic). There also where some seriously hot chicks, butthis motherfucker stole my hat. (But it was a cheap one and full of sweat anyway, so he can keep it .)

Laroux's music translated surprisingly well to being performed live. I thought Colourless Colour and Bulletproof sounded the best. She came out singing my favorite of her songs, Tigerlily, and it didn't come out so well. Elly Jackson did some funny Michael Jackson inspired dance during most of the faster songs. She'd moonwalk around during Bulletproof and In For The Kill. She's kinda gawky and awkward with an unpolished stage presence. Once she's singing she's pretty good, but inbetween the songs she seemed really nervous.

Overall a good little show from an act that probably won't get much bigger but will probably squeeze out at least more quality album.

And this week I saw BASIA BULAT in concert.

I've seen her a couple times and gotten over the uncomfortable feeling I get looking at her because of her uncanncy physical resemblance to my former fiancé who was also a musician (well, a scratcher DJ) with a similiar name (yes, I know fuckin' weird). Basia is a really good confident performer who brings good energy and strong vocals to every show. She seems very comfortable on stage and keeps the show moving and her songs sound much better live than on the albums. This time I saw her in a church, which proved to be a good venue for this type of show. I liked sitting on the church benches (pews?).

The guy openning for her was definately not comfortable. His anecdotes came out all nervous and it got a little silly how all his songs were inspired by other songs.

I haven't bought her new ablum yet. Actually, it was the poster for the concert that made me aware she even had a new album and so I bought a ticket for the concert like two days before the event but still haven't picked up the CD. Maybe I'll do that tonight. The new stuff sounded good at the concert.

Spandau Belly wrote:I haven't bought her new ablum yet. Actually, it was the poster for the concert that made me aware she even had a new album and so I bought a ticket for the concert like two days before the event but still haven't picked up the CD. Maybe I'll do that tonight. The new stuff sounded good at the concert.

Ive been liking it so far but Im not sure where I would rate in comparison to her last yet. I need a couple more listens.

Actually I saw Muse, Vampire Weekend, 30 Seconds to Mars, Phoenix and Metric...but Muse was really why I was there.

My second time seeing them, and they haven't lost a step. I've seen them on a number of top 5 lists for best live bands in the world, and they deserve the ranking. Only downer was the length of the set...about 45 minutes, but that was due to the stupid ass concert scheduling. Show had to end early as it was on a weeknight. Why a weeknight for a mini-festival??? Whatever.

Anyway, if you get a chance to see them, please go see them, even if you aren't into their new album (it's hit and miss for me), EVERYTHING WORKS LIVE, I promise.

I love Manchester Orchestra! Seen them about 5 times now. It doesn't hurt that they are best friends with my favorite band (Brand New) so that really accounts for the number of times I have seen them. But MEAN EVERYTHING TO NOTHING was tops for me last year. I wore the fuck out of that record.

I love Manchester Orchestra! Seen them about 5 times now. It doesn't hurt that they are best friends with my favorite band (Brand New) so that really accounts for the number of times I have seen them. But MEAN EVERYTHING TO NOTHING was tops for me last year. I wore the fuck out of that record.

Have fun, Moo! Pride is so bad ass live!

Yes indeed! I can't wait. Going with my brother and my best friends to my favorite venue in Seattle (The Showbox, if anyone is ever here). I've had Mean Everything going constantly for months as well, so I'm pretty jazzed about this one. I've never seen them live.

I love Manchester Orchestra! Seen them about 5 times now. It doesn't hurt that they are best friends with my favorite band (Brand New) so that really accounts for the number of times I have seen them. But MEAN EVERYTHING TO NOTHING was tops for me last year. I wore the fuck out of that record.

Have fun, Moo! Pride is so bad ass live!

Yes indeed! I can't wait. Going with my brother and my best friends to my favorite venue in Seattle (The Showbox, if anyone is ever here). I've had Mean Everything going constantly for months as well, so I'm pretty jazzed about this one. I've never seen them live.

They really rock out live. Lately, they have been only playing stuff off of METN, but when they do play stuff off of Like a Virgin Losing a Child it sounds SO much better than the record.

I saw Dragonette last night. They had two opening acts and I really want to make a point to you up-and-coming musicians that you should try to say the name of your band a couple times and say it loud and say it clear just like Mike & The Mechanics would want you to do because if somebody in the audience likes your music they will want to look up your act but they can't do this without the name. I saw Bjork a few years ago and Santogold opened for her and I loved them but couldn't make out their group name the one or two times the lead singer mumbled it and I had to do some extensive internet digging to find out who this awesome band was. Well, the same thing happened last night because one of the two openning acts were a really good upbeat rock band but I don't know who they are. The other openner was okay, kinda almost bordering on pop-country music, but not the type of stuff I listen to.

Anyhoo, Dragonette were great. I didn't find their second album as catchy as their first, but upon hearing some of these songs live, I think a lot of them might be growing on me. I've also always thought the main thing holding them back from getting bigger is how much they sound like No Doubt, especially the vocals. But in a live performance Martina Whatsername sheds her vocal resemblance to Gwen Stefani, although it then became apparent how much the guitar work resembles that of The Edge from U2. But anyway, they sounded more distinct in their live versions of their tracks. The stage was pretty small, so not a lot of room for dancing around. They mostly stood in one place. Martina is a relatively charismatic lead and will probably get more so in time, and the show was pro. The songs just kept coming with no awkward forced banter or anything.

Overall a good show, but this is a band that does sound better on the CD because of how post-produced they are and their dependance on effects. But for $20, it was well worth it.

So I spent the last two weeks at this outdoor music festival. If you buy a pass for the whole event it costs $20 a night and there are multiple shows on multiple stages in a night. A ticket for an individual night usually costs $50 - $60 dollars. I sold off my tickets for four of the nights when I didn’t want to go at all at a profit. It ended up costing me about $90 bucks to see all the following acts. I think it was a good deal.

GYPSY KINGS

This was the act I was looking forward to the most. I’ve been a lifelong fan of their music and even got interested in learning Spanish when I was a kid to understand their songs. These guys are all a bit older, but they still had great energy and seemed really happy. They played only their upbeat songs like Djobi Djoba, Bamboleo, and Pida Mi Lar. They didn’t play any of their slower ballads like Tu Quieres Volver or anything. So it made for a fun steadily flowing show and I’m really glad to have finally seen them.

ROGER HODGESON of SUPERTRAMP

I think it’s well known that for some odd reason Supertramp is biggest in Canada and within Canada they are biggest in Montreal. People just love them here. They’re definitely before my time but I grew up always singing their songs at the bars with my buddies and at this concert there were loads of younger people there singing along which proves Supertramp isn’t becoming any less popular. This guy was just amazing. His voice has held out perfectly and he’s the most gracious performer I’ve ever seen. He ran through Supertramp’s hits doing great job of all of them and seeming so sincerely touched that anybody still cared about him.

BASIA BULAT

This is the third time I’ve seen her and I’m always impressed. She’s such a cheerful little charmer and a good old fashioned folkie. Her folk music isn’t quite as super old school as those fairy tale songs about talking crows or whatever, but her lyrics are very nice poetic and general. A lot of folk singer chicks just put their therapy sessions to the sound of a guitar strum and listening to their relationship problems gets tedious, but Bulat’s songs never go into that zone of rhythmless uncomfortable disclosure. She’s nice and upbeat and a treat to listen to. Which brings me to…

MISS EMILY

She is pretty much just one of those poor chicks who was born with amazing vocal ability but no songwriting ability and so she just does vocal gymnastics while whining about all her personal problems with no effort at poetic expression. All her songs were kinda like that one where Alanis Morissette just writes letters to all the dudes she dated itemizing their relationship. I also think her dad or some stalker was behind me because this creepy old dude just kept acting like her stage banter was directed exclusively at him. This guy also punctuated the end of most of songs by saying “You’re beautiful, Emily.” Creepy.

GREAT LADE SWIMMERS

These guys are a decent sulky mellow rock band. Kinda old fashioned hippy folk stuff. They don’t have a great stage presence but it’s hard to imagine this kind of music facilitating big charisma. This was a nice little show.

GORD DOWNEY

I’ve never really been an active listener of his group, The Tragically Hip, and I’m not sure how big they are outside of Canada. There’s lots of people here who have seen them like forty times. I know their stuff, and generally like it, but never really put it on, and I don’t know any of Downey’s solo stuff, but judging from this concert, I can’t really tell how his solo sound differs from his group’s sound. This concert was actually a really fun time. Probably one of the better concerts I’ve gone to where I don’t know any of the songs. His songs were all pretty enjoyable and catchy. In his stage banter he tended to start making this jokes and rambling in a way that I think was probably only understood by the other people inside his head and even he seemed to realize nobody understood what he was saying and he seemed to be struggling with cutting himself off while rambling, but it was kinda cute in a way.

JOAN JETT

I’m pretty picky about my poser badasses. For the most part performers who seem to be trying way too hard to convince me they are ‘bad’ go in that George Thoroughgoode category of complete lameness. I think Johnny Cash might be the only guy I listen to sing about how bad he is while I know he’s not at all but still enjoy it. Well, maybe Michael Jackson too, but I always thought he wrote the song ‘bad’ in character just for that song and was more of a ‘beat it’ man the rest of the time. So I didn’t think I’d ever be in the mood for a Joan Jett concert, but I guess I was wrong about myself because I ended up having a good time. I also didn’t realize how many songs she had done. I think I attributed half of them to Pat Benitar. I live in this neighbourhood where there is like 7 tattoo parlours all within a five minute walk of my apartment and all the tattoo people like to hang out in front of them and show off their tattoos just like Vin Diesel would hang out showing off his car to other racers in a parking lot in a Fast & Furious movie. There’s this one dude I always see with a giant tattoo of Joan Jett on his bicep with the words ‘I Love Joan Jett’ written down his arm. That guy showed up for this concert and the crowd just parted and let him go right to the front. That made me happy.

SANTANA & RITCHIE VALENS

As we all know, there are two Santanas. The awesome hippy guy who did great songs back in the day, and then this session guitarist who works for B list popstars producing C list materiel. But which would show up? Well, mostly the old good Santana. His live versions of Jingo and Black Magic Woman were amazing. That nice drawn out kind of jamming that I used to love seeing from George Clinton shows. Santana worked in a couple of his garbage pop songs at the end and they really pleased the crowd, but it was a very satisfying show for me. I got most of the songs I hoped for. He did the odd hippy ramblings about peace and love and stuff and it wasn’t entirely convincing. The wackiest part came when he introduce his band and it turned out to be Lou Diamond Philips on the maracas and everybody did a doubletake from having looking at him all night but not really realizing it was him.

WOODHANDS

These guys go in that category of obnoxious frat boy rap stuff. Unlike The Bloodhound Gang, they forgot to be funny. Unlike The Beastie Boys, they forgot to be 30 years ago. But like 3OH3, they remembered to be obnoxious. Lots of forced cuss talking and acting silly. Their music wasn’t all bad, but their stage act can only be explained by drunkenness and a complete lack of confidence.

ISLANDS

This was a band of young guys doing surf rock music. It was a bit weird how everybody in the audience gradually got won over by them. I just kept hearing people saying they were warming up to them as the show went on. Their stuff was a bit like MGMT and maybe Vampire Weekend and not bad to have on in the background. Nothing special, but they’re on their way up in the circuit of music you can comfortably ignore.

HOLE

What a disgrace. Man, this band was huge when I was young. I watched about twenty minutes of this show while on my way between two other shows at the festival and nobody in the band was trying at all. Well, Courtney Love was trying, not to sing, but trying to convince us all how cool she is for being a complete screwup drunken loser with her self-depricating stage banter.

METRIC

I’ve just never connected with this group’s sound. They’ve always felt like a poorman’s The Yeah-Yeah-Yeah’s. The crowd seemed to be really loving it though, so if you like their music, their live show is probably a great experience.

JIMMY CLIFF

This guy is pure magic. The star of THE HARDER THE COME is still a vital showman bringing great reggae energy. I got into him because of that movie and have loved his music ever since. He did most of his hits and a great version of Rivers Of Bablyon. He does some funny running-type dance moves and his voice is still fantastic. He was one of the big draws for me, and I was not disappointed.

WEEZER

This band was huge when I was a young teenager and I guess they still are pretty big among the hipsters. I kinda stopped listening to them like ages ago but still recognized most of the songs they played. I always figured people would turn on them and they’d be considered a really dated embarrassment by most people, but then again I predicted the same for Green Day so what do I know? They had pretty good energy, but their songs didn’t improve from the live experience. Rivers’s vocals weren’t great, but it was a fun enough show. I guess they were a good choice to close out the festival.

These guys are a decent sulky mellow rock band. Kinda old fashioned hippy folk stuff. They don’t have a great stage presence but it’s hard to imagine this kind of music facilitating big charisma. This was a nice little show.

ISLANDS

This was a band of young guys doing surf rock music. It was a bit weird how everybody in the audience gradually got won over by them. I just kept hearing people saying they were warming up to them as the show went on. Their stuff was a bit like MGMT and maybe Vampire Weekend and not bad to have on in the background. Nothing special, but they’re on their way up in the circuit of music you can comfortably ignore.

I saw great lake swimmers in a small club out here. maybe 50 people max, which is definitely the right type of setting to see them in. It's basically slow-core mark kozalek/red house painters/sun kil moon type stuff but thats right up my alley when Im in the mood for it. You are right they dont really have presence but it would sort of feel weird if they did given their music.

As for Islands theyve been around a lot longer than either MGMT or VW. They used to be in a band called Unicorns, which were amazing and well ahead of their time. They broke up and 2 of the members formed Islands, which is on similiar ground but much more stylistically diverse. They even have rappers and stuff tons of calypso-ish tropical music and even get completely proggy. Basically every album theyve done has been pretty different from the others. My personal fave is the first one but thats just me.

Theres supposedly a rap group the Unicorns people are doing called "th' Corn Gangg" but there's been no word on recent developments on that front.

This was a big concept large stadium show featuring lots of high-tech props to accompany the live performance of Pink Floyd's album The Wall. I got a really good place to sit and enjoyed the show immensely. I had several seats around me empty because two people never showed up and on the other side some man and his kid left for most of the show (I think the kid got scared).

The structure of the show was that while the musicians performed and other spectacles occurred on stage, roadies would gradually build a giant wall out of cardboard bricks that would block out the entire stage. The Wall was built by the halfway mark and after that Roger just danced in front of the Wall or on top of it and then it all came crashing down right at the end. Various video content was projected onto the brick wall. Some of it was just for pure visual effect. A lot of it was of the anti-establishment variety. I'll give Roger Waters credit for going all the way with it. These anti-establishment rocker types usually like to say they are anti-religion and bash Christianity, but then go a little hypocritical by going soft on the other religions, but Waters bashes all the world's religions through his video content. Good job on being a true atheist, Roger! Young Lust also featured a superhighdefinition strippers dancing on the stadium-sized wall, so technically, those are biggest tits I've ever seen.

The props were fantastic. There were several marionettes including one of a wicked schoolmaster, one of matronly woman representing his mum, and a plant woman with bright pink kunis and boobies. There was a really cool blimp in the shape of a boar that flew around the stadium and it reminded me of that blimp from WATCHMEN. For some reason Run Like Hell was the real highlight for me. I can't put my finger on why, it's not my favorite track off that album but it had so much power live.

I think if you have a chance to see this show, you should. I think it is a really great spectacle.

Nice and dirty (the guy curses like a sailor), supporting the "Living Proof" album.

Highlights:

- he stopped in the middle of the show to say that gangsta rap rips him off every day- he palyed a solo and walked through the entire crowd, sitting on a chair like 2 feet from me- the always pathetic Grace Slick was dancing around in the audience with a hell of a black eye, and everyone ignored her LOL- he did this menagerie of tunage including RL Burnside, ERic Clapton, Mississipi Fred, and BB King- he played well over an hour and a half

I mean, this guy is 70+ years old and he shredded his strings like Kerry King.

She's always out here in vegas. Last time she had an art show (BTW, her art is pretty neat). BUT she would not even TALK to anyone in the gallery, I mean not even a handshake, unnless you were paying 2 K to buy a paper print of her stuff.

I saw Austra last night. They fit right in with all that electronic pop music I listen to. You've all probably heard of them because I ain't on the cutting edge of jack shit. The concert was in this club called Ritual and I had not been in there yet and I assumed it was a skid bar up until now because it's part of the same building as this runaway youth centre and there's always dodgy types hanging around outside (presumedly trying to recruit the runaways to be whores etc). But it turned out this place was a hipster bar. I felt a bit funny because I dressed more like a thug in anticipation of it being a skid bar so I kinda stood out among all the horn-rimmed glasses, newsie caps, Zooey Deschannel haircuts, and hipster beards. Everybody was all staring at me 'n shit.

Anyway, the concert was very good. There were too opening acts and they were both very good. One was like an MGMT type of electronic pop rock deal and the other was like Orgy crossed with Snog. All three acts were total professionals. They were comfortable on stage and kept the music rolling without any awkward forced banter or fishing for applause.

I doubt this Austra group will get all that big. Their songs are nice, but a lot of them sound a little too similiar and are not as catchy as somebody like Laroux. So they'll probably be stuck at this level of venue for their careers, which means you'll have lots of chances to see them and if you like this type of music, I suggest that you do see them.

I aw U2 and The Fray in Denver last weekend, but didn't think to post my talk about it here. In brief, it was a strong show, though The Fray were unimpressive and I didn't know lots of U2's songs, having not followed them for a long time.

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky

I saw Peter Frampton last night. He put on a solid show. His vocals and guitar work have held up perfectly, I doubt you could tell you weren't in the 70s if you closed your eyes. He has a humble and gracious stage presence with a bit of warm humour. At one point he got distracted by a snack vendor walking around selling popcorn in bags mounted on a stick and he did this whole voicebox improv on popcorn on a stick. It was pretty funny.

He doesn't have a huge catalogue of material, so the tracks weren't really a surprise, and of course, he finished with Do You Feel Like I Do.

Going to see U2 tonight. Saw a picture of the stage set up....looks like a freaking roadies worst nightmare. As I said in another music thread, U2 always puts on a good show even if I have to stuff cotton in my ears between songs so I don't have to listen to Bono blather on about his causes. Not that there's anything wrong with his causes, but I just paid over 100 bucks per ticket to see you sing and to forget about the real world for a few hours.

so sorry wrote:Going to see U2 tonight. Saw a picture of the stage set up....looks like a freaking roadies worst nightmare. As I said in another music thread, U2 always puts on a good show even if I have to stuff cotton in my ears between songs so I don't have to listen to Bono blather on about his causes. Not that there's anything wrong with his causes, but I just paid over 100 bucks per ticket to see you sing and to forget about the real world for a few hours.

I'm not much of a U2 fan, but several of my friends went a few weeks ago when they were in Seattle and apparently U2's still got it. They all said the tix were well worth the money.

so sorry wrote:Going to see U2 tonight. Saw a picture of the stage set up....looks like a freaking roadies worst nightmare. As I said in another music thread, U2 always puts on a good show even if I have to stuff cotton in my ears between songs so I don't have to listen to Bono blather on about his causes. Not that there's anything wrong with his causes, but I just paid over 100 bucks per ticket to see you sing and to forget about the real world for a few hours.

I'm not much of a U2 fan, but several of my friends went a few weeks ago when they were in Seattle and apparently U2's still got it. They all said the tix were well worth the money.

It was quite a spectacle. The stage was huge, Bono's voice was pitch perfect, and we had a great time. U2 isn't one of my favorite bands, but I've always liked their music, and I've seen them a few times in concert (going back to my high school days with the Joshua Tree tour). It was definitly worth the price of admission.

I hope that for $100, you got good seats. My ticket was $58, and that got me an in-the-clouds spot in Invesco Field, where the Broncos play.

Yeah, that stage was a killer. Mind if I repost my review here, edited for length? I'll do it, anyway.

I hadn’t been to a large-venue concert in ten years, so the prospect of seeing U2 in a 70,000-person capacity stadium was a bit daunting. I’d heard wonderful and dismissive things about their shows in recent years, that they were spectacular and that the stage overwhelmed the performance. I would find out.

My and friend Donna's seats were only ten rows below the top of the stadium. Nosebleed seats have never been more nosebleedy. Turning to the field, we saw an immense, four-legged green construction dotted with orange buttons. I began to wonder if the stage-doubters were right. The band could have done well with a handful of amps and a few big screens, I thought. I am a fan of the simpler-is-better approach.

Around 7:15, The Fray appeared for their opening set. I’m not sure I had ever heard a Fray song before, and I didn't remember any of them the next day. They were competent. More entertaining were the swallows who began to congregate about the stadium as the sun set. They swooped and glided above the crowds, sometimes coming within a few feet of a person’s head. Such beautiful birds, red-bellied and brown-winged, and so daring in their flight. I couldn’t help smiling and occasionally exclaiming at their acrobatics.

To entertain and edify the spectators during the long delay between the opener and U2's arrival, video screens hanging from the giant structure projected statistics about how many cars were produced in an average day, how much was spent in the USA on weight-loss programs each day, how much water was consumed, and so forth. I am a liberal of staggering proportions; in fact, I am a social democrat. But all I could think was, “So, boys, how many trucks did it take to carry all of your gear from the last city to this one? How much jet fuel was spent flying you in, first class?” Talk is cheap, and it's easy for millionaires to donate money.

U2 came on around 8:40 p.m. and played for two hours, a mix of old hits and more recent songs I wasn’t familiar with. High points for me were the sing-along numbers -- “I Will Follow,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (during which the screens displayed images from the Mideast protests and revolutions), and “Pride (In the Name of Love).” I was very touched by “All I Want is You,” among my favorite U2 songs. Downsides were some of the electropop numbers, which were kept to a minimum. There also was an interminable song, the title of which I forget, that was inspired by Frank Sinatra. Fortunately, the unpleasant and boring moments were greatly outweighed by the excellent songs.

The band’s performance was amazingly tight. Though Bono rambled through monologues, his vocals were spot-on until parts of the encore, when he started sounding a bit raspy and off-key at times. The Edge, though still overly dependent upon effects pedals, has the licks and sounds better than he did when the four were young rebels. Larry Mullen, Jr., tore up the big drum kit he carries these days. If Adam Clayton seems to take fourth place, it’s because the bass lines aren’t written with complexity; he keeps the rhythm going, the essential job of a bass man, and he does it well.

In the end, the stage show turned out to be superfluous to the fine performance, though it gave people in the nosebleed seats something to look at. It throbbed with colors and even seemed to shake at times. That was appealing, because even with binoculars, the band appeared to be matchstick men. Without, they were ants.

A fine night out.

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky

I'm glad you guys had fun at U2, I've passed on seeing them a few times over the years because the tickets were always expensive and I wasn't sure what I was going to get. If Bono came out and wasted a whole bunch of time with political rants and then didn't play the songs I like, I would feel hugely ripped off (this is what happened when I saw Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street band) and so I've never gone to see them because I feel that's a reasonable fear. I also don't really listen to them anymore. The last time they made songs I liked was on their Pop album, like 15 years ago and I rarely even play their old stuff around the house. But I'm glad they were good. Maybe next time I'll go see them.

This guy looks amazing. He's found some fountain of youth because he looks like he's 40 and is very agile and energetic in moving around the stage. His voice is okay, it's definately had some wear and doesn't sound like it used to, but he can still sing the songs fine. But his voice did run out of power during the encore.

He busted out kinda rushing through a lot of hits at the start of the show. A lot of these songs are less than 3 minutes on the albums, but I was hoping he might wind some of them out a bit more. He started to do that about 20 minutes into the show. The real standouts were Midnight Special, Have You Ever Seen The Rain, and Lookin' Out My Backdoor. I didn't realize other people loved Lookin' Out My Backdoor as much as I do but than one got the biggest singalong reaction. He closed the show out with Bad Moon On The Rise and Fortunate Son and did a good job of those songs.

He also did that goofy baseball song in a way that made me like a bit more than I normally do, and he threw in a decent cover of Orbison's Pretty Woman.

Overall, a fun energetic show, even if Foggerty's vocals have a bit of mileage on them. And I can't complain about the set list.

Just saw BB King last night (At Green Valley Ranch in Henderson). Before now, I had not known he'd been living here in Las Vegas for the past 10 years. Anyway, his band is top notch, total music lovers. Our city welcomed him back with open arms, and his genuine smile appreciated it.

BB is turning 86 soon, so as one can imagine he's not so frisky anymore, though he would hold onto Lucille and dance around in his chair the best he could with the heartiest of smiles. His back-up guitarist played most of the songs for him, but he played 2 songs their entirety: The Thrill is Gone and Key to the Highway. He shredded both like time never touched him with age. But no matter how tired his fingers may be, his voice is still striking and thunderous from a stage. He's still got it after all these years.

He pretty much cracked jokes and told stories most of the time but it was a real treat to see. At one point he even threatened his drummer, saying, "I'm from Mississippi, I'll cut you." You could tell he still sincerely enjoys what he does, lives for it, even. He even joked about how he woke in bed to see a news report of his death and he called his assistant saying, "did you know I was dead?" Seeing him really hits you, and I even felt tears swelling at one moment. He's a living legend we'll only get to treasure and see for, I fear, not much longer. He's the real deal; a Southern boy who's seen cotton fields and his mother's stink-eye at Sunday church when he misbehaved.

There was one odd moment of the show that really lasted about twenty, in which he started playing "You are my Sunshine" and the audience was singing along. Some cranky-voiced woman in the front was screeching so loud that his mic caught every word. I felt as if I was in the middle of "O Brother Where Art Thou?" or something.

At the end, he left with his overcoat placed upon his shoulders and a proper pimp hat, and I left feeling somehow blessed. I hope the old bugger lives another 20 years.

I tweeted incessantly from the show, mostly old people jokes, but all kidding aside this show was AMAZING. ( I was uber lucky to get VIP balcony seats so I would not aggravate my neck injury and could pretty much count Halford’s nose hairs. I would not have gone if otherwise LOL). The room was packed, and FULL of BLS biker kind of people with huge beards.

I kind of half-expected some watered down cover band for Thin Lizzy, but they were crystal fucking clean. The new vocalist was so much like the original singer live, it was surreal. Rosalie gave me goose bumps. They used their old light sign and it was like I was trapped in some time warp. Phil Lynott would be proud to see them today.Black Label Society pretty much brought the house down. Zakk’s vocals were such a strange melody, but the sound works so much for them. I’ve only ever heard their studio records before, but they were so much more elevated live. They were brilliant, and very fucking loud.

When Judas Priest came on you could feel some sort of energy shift. Rob Halford had more costume changes than Cher, but he owned that stage and let me tell you, his voice did not age with his body. The man BLEEDS metal. He was the true metal god he was when I saw them back on the Ram It Down tour, but even better. Judas Priest is a bottle of good fucking scotch whiskey. I’m glad I got to taste it again after all these years.

If you guys get the chance to see the tour, do so. There’s so much to enjoy with this lineup.

Here’s some of my tweets. They tapered off during The Priest, mainly because I was in awe, and getting drunk LOL.

theangiechristThe Angiechrist™Haven't heard Turbo Lover live since 88. Still kicks ass.I only wish I was in Halford shape when I'm 2x my age.Area 52 is all Halford.http://twitgoo.com/4ruul3 (he had some shiny UFO looking robe on LOL)Rob Halford is the musical Picard. #nuffsaidWhy are skinheads here? Didn't they go out of style with the mullet? Wait, I see mullets. Sigh.Halford just proved his lungs can kick Chuck Norris' ass. I am in aural awe.3 songs in and Halfords had more wardrobe changes than Cher. Mosh pit forming. This is bloody awesome.Nice to see Glenn Tipton ain't changed his pants since '83. (Red leather. Nuff said)Halford can still hit those ear shattering notes.Holy beards, Batman! #BLS was awesome!Glad I'm already half deaf, I won't be hearing my ears ring tomorrow.Bands still in soundcheck and people giving devil horns. Glad to see old folks stretching to avoid HMO copays.The DJ is now doing "Dio interpretive dance" to rainbow in the dark. Yes we see you, failed theatre major. LOLThe DJ between sets is playing Dio and holding a sword. Thank god someone's in dragon watch now that he's goneI'm preparing for multiple eargasms, folks. Yes, a bit moist in the trousers. Plus the drinks are comped. #ohyes!The same guy who used to bring crutches now has a walker. #walkon #jurassicrock #hrhPlease don't turn up the house lights again I'm blinded by skullets. Thanks so much! #oldpeoplerawkingout

When I was in the Navy back in the early eighties, I used to spend my weekends just walking up and down the streets of downtown Chicago,listening to jazz come spilling out into the sidewalks. Places looked like holes in the walls with doors, but the music.....Oh yeah. I was passing one such joint on Milwaukee Street when I heard two guys jamming their asses off.I looked in the window and there he was - BB Fucking King.Apparently he just wandered by and decided to sit in. For a couple of hours.So good. So damned good.

The Vicar wrote:When I was in the Navy back in the early eighties, I used to spend my weekends just walking up and down the streets of downtown Chicago,listening to jazz come spilling out into the sidewalks. Places looked like holes in the walls with doors, but the music.....Oh yeah. I was passing one such joint on Milwaukee Street when I heard two guys jamming their asses off.I looked in the window and there he was - BB Fucking King.Apparently he just wandered by and decided to sit in. For a couple of hours.So good. So damned good.